Delinquent Student and his Pet Teacher

In the ghastly silence hanging over the apartment, the two cat’s eyes almost glowed with their wide eyed stare towards the door. For just a moment, stiff with tension, nobody moved nor made a sound. Shuffling at the door made their ears twitch in sync and both of them got off the couch as sneakily as they could. A tear blurred Puss’s vision and he quickly needed to wipe his face, stumbling back as Kitty professionally snuck across the room and turned the lights off. Now the only light in the room was from the hallway, with every single moving shadow clearly visible. 

Watching from behind Puss suddenly felt dread set in. He saw Kitty getting her weapon ready, he watched the one shadow under the door move and then he panicked again. He didn’t know who could be at the door but his mind told him it could clearly only be one. He followed him, he followed him here and now he was gonna act. Puss completely missed her signal before she reached for the door, knife held behind it. The painic kicked his legs into motion.

Wanting to stop Kitty from opening the door, he rushed towards her but it was already too late. The door was just around halfway open, Kitty ready to attack when Puss stumbled and crashed onto her, completely ruining her momentum and both fell into the open hallway.

Not knowing the situation they’re in yet, Kitty turns around on the floor towards Puss, hissing and almost hitting him off, “What are you doing , Puss?!” Puss stumbled all over his words, he didn’t know what came over him either. “Sorry, sorry, I just thought it could be…” Before he said any names he turned around to look at who stood over them.

“Looks like we came at the wrong time.” Said the one Puss looked at. “Are we interrupting something?” Said the other one Kitty was looking at. There was more than one person and Puss sighed with slight relief, immediately being shoved off by Kitty and landing on the floor.

She stood up to face the three bakers in the hallway looking over them. “Mierda! Get a grip, Puss!” She still hissed at him and he snapped back to the situation at hand, she was right, even if it wasn’t Muerte, like he expected it to be, these people still seemed to be here to harm them. 

“And who’s this one?” One of them asks Puss as they stare at him laying on the floor, shrugging with his nervous smile. The third one standing parallel to the door was the one to finally make some sense of this. “Kitty Softpaws, correct?” It wasn’t Jack Horner himself, no, but these were his bakers for sure. Kitty sighed, seemingly incredibly annoyed at them. “What do you guys want?” Her stance grew more relaxed even with the harsh weapons drawn around her. Puss could see a way too big cleaver almost the size of him, a bat with nails and the most worrying of all the metal bat, carried as if it weighed nothing by a large female with a scar across her face.

“Well wouldn't you know, you little backstabbing thief?” Said the female baker, towering over everyone in the hallway. Kitty turned to her and pointed her weapon at her, not a single sign of concern in her. “That was MONTHS ago and only now you show up?” 

Parallel to their conversation Puss was only able to get up slowly, he listened intently to the conversation. “Months? Oh no, no, no.” The woman laughed. “This was a few days ago, but glad we finally have your confession about the other one as well!” She slammed the metal bat on her hand in a threatening manner, as if telling her she was ready to take the swing any second now.

“Days?” Kitty took a fighting stance as they did seem to grow more serious about harming her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about… and you already knew about that other time!” She now points her knife with intent at the baker. “Oh sure, no idea huh?” Of course she wouldn’t have a clue about this. Puss starts to sweat as the conversation goes on, his feet moving slowly backwards as if pulled by a magnet. “Just as much as you didn’t know about the deal with La Muerte, right?” The metal bat slaps in her rough hand again to emphasise her words and the sound rang in Puss’s ears. He watched on. 

“La Muerte?!” Kitty gasped. “I had no part in this! I stole from you after your boss set me up months ago and that’s it !” She hissed, her words suddenly grew more desperate after that name dropped into the conversation. Puss felt his heart suddenly drop to the floor. He knew it. They were talking about his robbery. His robbery that they were blaming Kitty for. 

“Well, we just want to see… what would happen if you’re out of the picture, would the thefts continue, or will they stop?” 

“What?”

The moment slowed down as Puss watched the large woman start to swing her bat after another warning slap. Kitty was shocked and Puss had to act. Without thinking he drew his sword and a loud clank chimed through the hallway. He pushed himself in front of Kitty, once again destroying her momentum and making her stumble. He couldn’t make her swing stop in the slightest, he just made her miss them and the bat smashed into the ground. “Now hold on, hold on!” Puss voice chimes through, even he was surprised by how well his voice worked at that moment. “Puss!” He could feel the anger in her voice on the back of his neck and still tried his best not to falter.

“You can’t just kill a lady for something she hasn’t done!” Again Puss tries his charasmatic ways of handling a situation, pushing down his anxiety over the situation. Kitty still stays close and now pays attention to the other bakers. “I can handle this on my own, what are you doing?!” She couldn’t be more upset at how he’s handling this, yet again she feels something was off about him, he didn’t handle the situation how he usually would at all. The other two bakers close in. “Even if we wouldn’t, our boss isn’t that kind.” 

Kitty rolled her eyes. “I’d take that over La Muerte any day of the week.” she sighed. The cold sweat down Puss’s spine that accompanied her words, oh how much he would have preferred Jack Horner’s actions as well, he would probably be less torturous to him and just snap his neck instantly. Sword still high, the nerves slowly got to him. “So whaddaya want, ginger?” The baker slowly lifted her bat back up above Puss.

“Well… To tell you the truth, it wasn’t her robbing you like that.” 

The baker raised an eyebrow, clearly interested in what he had to say. “You know something about this?”

“Sure do! But I believe we shouldn’t continue this conversation in a hallway like this, don’t you think. Here, where all the residents can hear and see this.” He sheathed his sword in hopes they’d take his bait. He looks around nervously to see their reaction, the bakers exchange looks of their own and Kitty just seems overwhelmed with the stupidity of it all. 

“Puss… please don’t tell me that that heist actually did bite you in the ass…” Kitty massaged her nose bridge as they made their way outside, escorted with the bakers around them not letting them out of their sight. “I can’t just let you take the blame for this now can I?”

“Yeah but…” We are now outside, after taking a few corners in another alleyway once again, “This isn’t much better, you know.” We zoom out and a dozen more bakers surround them. 

Puss shrugs. “Uhm… you’re welcome?” Kitty lets out yet another annoyed grunt and gets herself ready as the baker’s dozen surround them. “So, who was the one that stole the goods that were for La Muerte?!” The same large baker woman continued her intimidation move and still towered over everyone else. “Clearly it was one of you!”

“I can’t believe you put your hands on things that were meant for La Muerte, Puss…” Kitty whispered, not as an answer to the baker, just a general exclamation. Puss’s frustrations almost shot right out of him as he almost shouted his reply. “Well, how was I supposed to know? You think his name was just on there?!”

“His?” The black cat threw him a confused look. “So it really was you!” Both Kitty and the baker were answering at the same time, Puss only acknowledged his old partner's answer. “Well I wasn’t the one making fun of how it was so easy and that I couldn’t possibly pull it off!” He turns to her and throws his paws in gestures again.

“Making fun of it?” Kitty almost drops her guard with disbelief. “I didn’t tell you to do it now, did I?!” Kitty rebutted and the bakers seemed astonished at how they didn’t pay them any attention. “You knew I’d take it as a challenge! So in fact, you did tell me to do it!” He stomped his feet as if he was right, Kitty once again just couldn’t help but roll her eyes, “urgh, men…” At the point when the bakers charged in for an attack, Kitty was just done with Puss again. She easily dodged their first attacks and was once again reminded of how annoying he could get at times, sighing with slight joy. “So you don’t deny it!” He excellently blocks an attack from a baker with a wooden bat, splitting it in the middle. “Fine!” Kitty hissed, “I did say it to challenge you, are you happy?!” She slides underneath a baker and kicks his butt to make him fall over. “Aha!” Being midair, Puss triumphantly kicks away another weapon flying at him, “See, I knew it!”

Both of them not taking the situation seriously at all, they were too focused on their conversation, beating one baker after another with seemingly no problem. Both seemed to enjoy their bickering with each other, fighting side by side, feeling like the good old days. Puss once again forgot his worries for just a moment, a proud grin on his face as he slams belly first into the metal bat.

He hits the ground gasping for air, unsure of what just happened. “Puss!” The moment they caught one of them off guard, the other followed quickly. A large wooden pizza peel hit the back of Kitties head making her hit the ground a few metres from Puss.

She held her head as the pain started to sting and watched the metal bat be held against Puss’s chest, pinning him to the ground. “So you’re the damn cat that got Muerte on our back?” Puss coughs and gasps before his breathing is able to slowly return to him. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see that Kitty was now also pinned to the ground. Such a sudden turn of events, Puss thought. The metal bat hits him from the side after he takes too long to answer, the force was purposefully kept light. “Are you ready to deal with the consequences, little pussy cat?!” Kitty watched the bat swing and hit him again, this time with just a bit more force behind it. Puss covers his head to avoid any massive damage, but even the swings that he had already taken felt like they could split his head if it hit directly. “The consequences?” Puss chuckled, confusing everyone around him. “What’s so funny, huh?”

Puss slowly put his paw into his pocked cramming something out of it. He held up the two marks of death for the baker to see, “I’ve been dealing with those for quite a while now.” His words sounded winded, his breathing still catching up with him. The eyes of the baker widened in shock and her arm went limp, making the bat drop onto Puss’s stomach. He flinched now even from the slight force of it, that thing was no joke.

“You’re marked?!” Kitty's voice chimed through the alley, the worry and shock in her voice makes him feel the guilt of not immediately telling her. The baker didn’t back down even after Puss flicked the cards towards her. She just took a closer look and grinned. “Then why not make it quick and end you right here?” His eyes shot wide open, he had hoped for the slight chance that they would back off knowing Muerte was already after him, but these goons were stupider than they looked, apparently.

The bat pushed into his stomach again, squeezing the air out of his lungs and making it hard to breathe.

“What the hell, Puss?! Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice seemed desperate and hurt, but there was nothing he could do right now, nothing he could say to her to fix it. The baker stepped onto his boot to stop him from moving away when she inevitably reeled back with her bat swung over her head. He tried to scramble away but his legs could’t quite cooperate, feeling a familiar sensation on his skin.

He’d been in a situation like this before, feeling his lives flash in front of his eyes as if looking death right in the eyes, but this felt different, why did it feel so different. 

And why the hell was all he was able to think about that damned wolf in front of him?!

His eyes shut tightly as he already saw the bat swinging his way, the moment before impact felt like hours were passing before he heard a loud thud in front of him. Everything was still for a moment and Puss could swear he was already dead. He jumped as a loud clank chimed through the air, his eyes back to being wide open, seeing the metal bat rolling on the ground metres away from him.

“Who the fuck allowed you to play with my prey like this, huh?!” A familiar snarl made him aware of the large dark figure that stood almost over him. Puss couldn’t believe the black poncho he saw, his eyes must be playing tricks on him.

The baker stared right into the deep darkness underneath the hoodie, being met with a pair of threatening and unnerving wide open blood red eyes. Her flinching only made the knife on her throat dig deeper into her skin. “M-Muerte?!” Puss gasped underneath his breath. Seeing only the snarling figure in front of him, he couldn’t take his eyes off of him, not at all. Meanwhile behind him Kitty managed to beat the baker holding her down running towards Puss. “What are you doing?! Get up! You need to leave!!” She grabbed onto his arm to pick him up, but he didn’t budge. He could only intently watch and listen to whatever was happening in front of him.

The crooked head of the wolf didn’t interrupt his growling at all as he stared deeply into the baker's eyes, making her back up just slightly more and more. He eyed her from head to toe, moving his knife along her throat to the back of her neck to stop her in her tracks, “You didn’t plan on taking my kill now, did you?” The baker lady was speechless. All she was able to do was move her hands up as a sign of giving up the fight, still he didn’t back down. Visible only for her, he pulled out a fresh mark of death and put it into her coat. “Your neck looks like it would have quite the satisfying crunch under my teeth, wouldn’t you agree?” She flinched, his crazy stare didn’t falter even for a blink, he only came closer and closer to her, making her freeze up. The moment grew quiet, the leftover bakers had been backing away slowly, then Muerte slowly turned back at Puss, examining him carefully. Puss’s breathing stopped the instant he saw those red eyes, so it really was him, what is he doing here?! His body instinctively tried to move away from him but his breathing just as his muscles froze in place. He watched as Muerte's eyes grew angry on him and his snarling intensified and with it, Puss’s fear. Then, as if he changed his mind, he snapped his head towards the baker and rammed his teeth down into her neck, making it indeed crunch underneath his teeth.

Kitty and Puss watched in horror as her body dropped, leaving strings and drops hanging from the wolf’s snout after he took a big chunk of flesh out of her neck. Now Kitty accompanied Puss on the ground, her breathing shaky, backing away from the scene. Puss winced, he never wanted Kitty to see this, to be part of this.

As Muerte just stood there, breathing heavily, growling in between his breaths, Kitty begged Puss to just get up and leave with her already, but he still couldn’t move.

“I.. can’t… he would just chase me.” Puss explained.

That wasn’t at all why he stayed in place. Puss has been utterly confused watching Muerte do what he just did. Why was he here? Why was he doing this? He just killed the person who was about to kill him. Puss didn’t understand any of it and it was now his curiosity that moved him closer to death.

Muerte turned towards them with a speed that made them both jump. He looked Kitty dead in the eyes as he moved towards them. “Are you the reason he looks like that?!”

Both of them were speechless and Kitty could only slowly shake her head. The intense stare made even her freeze up. His eyes switched onto Puss, who wasn’t sure how to feel before, but as the anger turned on him it made his heart jump and beat with the same panic he always felt in his presence. “What the hell are you doing here?!” He pointed at him as if he was ready to strangle him again, furious that he didn’t meet him as he was told to. 

“I-” Puss couldn’t even say anything even if he wanted to, he was immediately interrupted by the wolf. “You ran to her instead?!” As the wolf started to point at her instead Puss instinctively reached his arm out to block anything directed at her, making Muerte perk up in surprise. He looked offended or agitated, Puss couldn’t quite make it out underneath the hood that put his face in a shadow. How was Puss so calm in this situation, Kitty wasn’t able to stop shaking, her eyes still landing on the dead body in front of them every now and then. 

“Puss, what is..” as she spoke she noticed Muertes eyes darting to her, looking at her as if he wanted to shut her up and so she did.

Muerte watched on as Puss softly spoke to her and slowly stood up to place himself in between her and the wolf. He examined his face, underneath the smeared eyeliner he could see the ginger’s face fold with defiant anger. Muerte hated it. He hated everything about this damned situation. Puss turned to speak to him, he didn’t hear, nor did he care. The anger flexed in his arms and before he realised it his hand already pointed the knife towards the cats. His steps forward didn’t make Puss back away, he stood there and waited for her to get back up.

Enough, enough, enough of this! He was so sick of him, of her .

Puss watched the knife in his hand and again placed himself in front of Kitty, Muerte didn’t know why but something about that damned gata made his blood boil. The instant the rage went to his head, he leaped onto them, Puss already expected as much and had already been itching to draw his sword again. The wolf's teeth gnashed on the sword when it landed between them and Puss felt his big paw once again close around his neck. He winced with the emotional strain not knowing if he'd strangle him again or not. 

And yet he tried to keep his head cooled now that there was someone else at stake as well. Puss’s gaze followed Muerte’s arm, reaching over him towards Kitty. His heart stopped for a moment before he saw the knife placed directly over her chest, ready to dig in at any moment.

"Kitty!?" His plea got interrupted by the snarl too close to his face, breathing down his neck that was barely able to let air into his lungs.

“Who was it then?!” Puss couldn’t take his eyes off Kitty, who at this point had grabbed onto the knife, trying to stop it from stabbing her. Muerte bit down on the sword that was still in his mouth. “Who was the one to make you cry like that then, huh?” Puss flinched and stopped his struggle to reach towards Kitty, he turned to the wolf and his green eyes stared into the intense red glow that was still in shadows. Puss lost the battle to keep a hold of his sword for a second, his grip growing loose with the confusion over his question. 

Was he serious about this question or was he just asking this to humiliate him in front of Kitty, he didn’t know, but the anger that bubbled up in him was intense enough to spit back at him. “That was you! You damned mutt!” Puss bared his teeth in a strong hiss. The wolf jerked backwards, his ears underneath the hood twitching. The snarl stopped for just a second and then got replaced by his ominous chuckle that grew until the horrendous smile was back on his face. Puss just wanted to slap it out of his face, but he was more worried about Kitty. He looked back up at her and the knife was off her chest, but the wolf’s wrist still wasn’t. It still pressed down on her, the knife edging on the side of her chest.

Why did his laugh seem so damn relieved, what the hell was this wolf thinking, Puss couldn’t understand it at all. He was desperate for answers and yet he wouldn’t even know how to get them nor was he sure he really wanted them in the first place.

The wolf’s laugh relaxed together with his grip on both of them, before he spoke again.

“Relax, relax, I’m not here to cause you any harm, Gatitas.”